1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to mobile radiotelephone systems and specifically to the method and apparatus used in a system installed in rental vehicles, utilizing a computer system for credit card approval, call monitoring, call rating, and billing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Widespread mobile telephone unit service enables large numbers of users to have cellular mobile telephone service in their vehicles. To provide this service in rental vehicles or to other public transportation services such as taxi cabs, limousines, buses, and railroads, certain issues must be addressed by the entities providing the service; the transmission of voice messages through the mobile telephone unit to the customer to obtain credit card information as part of a registration process; the activation and deactivation of the mobile telephone unit, based on a customer's approved or denied credit; the activation and deactivation of the mobile telephone, based on a customer's wishes; the supervision of the mobile telephone unit as it pertains to cellular system identification, cellular airtime limits, and cellular service areas outside of the said service; the supervision of incoming calls to the mobile telephone unit; and the billing of a customer's accumulated cellular airtime.
Prior systems used for supervision of mobile telephone units in rental vehicles, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,776,003; 4,777,646; 4,831,647; and 4,860,341, have employed credit card actuatable mobile telephone units--that is, mobile telephone units with a magnetic stripe readers. A customer must run a credit card through the magnetic stripe reader so the credit card may be identified. A call is then placed, through the mobile telephone unit, to a registration system which calls a credit card clearinghouse for credit card validation. If there is no reason for service to be denied, the mobile telephone unit is activated for the customer to make calls until he turns off the vehicle's ignition or turns off the mobile telephone unit's power.
Data with respect to customers' calls are conventionally stored on nine track computer tapes in Automated Message Accounting (AMA) format. These AMA tapes are sent by the cellular service reseller to a service bureau and processed so the reseller may receive the billing information needed. The service bureau sends the billing information on nine track data tapes (typically in up to a month's time), which the reseller receives and uses to bill customers.
The disadvantages of this mode of operation are shared by the customer, the cellular service reseller, and the rental vehicle owner: the customer must swipe his credit card through the unit again when he turns off and again turns on the vehicle's ignition or the mobile telephone unit's power and the customer receives no receipt for his or her transactions at the end of the mobile telephone service; the cellular service reseller must wait up to thirty days to receive the billing information stored on the reseller tapes; and the rental vehicle owner loses money on the installed mobile telephone unit investment because the mobile telephone unit, equipped with the magnetic stripe reader, cannot be sold with the vehicle so equipped.